Hamdija Pozderac | |
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| 16thVice President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia | |
| In office 15 May 1987 – 23 September 1987 | |
| President | Lazar Mojsov |
| Preceded by | Lazar Mojsov |
| Succeeded by | Raif Dizdarević |
| 3rdMember of the Presidency of Yugoslavia for SR Bosnia and Herzegovina | |
| In office 15 May 1986 – 23 September 1987 | |
| Preceded by | Branko Mikulić |
| Succeeded by | Mato Andrić (Acting) Raif Dizdarević |
| 5thPresident of the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina | |
| In office 20 May 1982 – 28 May 1984 | |
| Preceded by | Nikola Stojanović |
| Succeeded by | Mato Andrić |
| 4thPresident of the People's Assembly of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina | |
| In office 30 July 1971 – May 1974 | |
| Prime Minister | Dragutin Kosovac |
| Preceded by | Džemal Bijedić |
| Succeeded by | Ratomir Dugonjić(as President of the Presidency) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1924-01-15)15 January 1924 |
| Died | 7 April 1988(1988-04-07) (aged 64) |
| Political party | League of Communists |
Hamdija Pozderac (15 January 1924 – 6 April 1988) was a YugoslavMuslimcommunist politician fromSR Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was the 4thPresident of the People's Assembly of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1971 to 1974. Pozderac was also amember of the Presidency of Yugoslavia for SR Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1986 to 1987, and served asPresident of the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1982 to 1984. He was forced to resign from politics due to a corruption scandal in September 1987.
Pozderac was considered one of the most influential and powerful politicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina during thecommunist era. His removal from the political scene in the late 1980s is today considered one of the most controversial events that preceded theBosnian War. Pozderac was removed due to theAgrokomerc Affair of 1987, which the Yugoslav press compared to the AmericanWatergate scandal.[1]
Pozderac was born inCazin to an establishedBosnian Muslim family which exerted strong influence in the westernmost part of the Bosnian region ofBosanska Krajina known for its strong resistance to the fascistIndependent State of Croatia regime duringWorld War II. During the war, he joined the illegal Alliance of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) and the anti-fascistPartisan movement.
He held various military and public posts in the Bosanska Krajina region during the war and was ordained with several military and public honors. Following the advent ofcommunist rule, the Pozderac family affirmed its strong position in Yugoslav politics withNurija Pozderac and Hamdija's brother,Hakija, both of whom held high positions in the Yugoslav government during and after World War II. His younger sister Hasnija was a Mayor of Cazin and also a prominent political figure. Pozderac was a close ally ofJosip Broz Tito,President of Yugoslavia for 27 years.[citation needed]
Pozderac was highly educated, holding a philosophy degree from theUniversity of Belgrade. He studied inMoscow, published several sociological studies, and was a professor of political science at theUniversity of Sarajevo.
Pozderac's politics centred on his involvement in theCommunist Party of Yugoslavia that he ideologically followed. He held various high positions in the government ofSR Bosnia and Herzegovina andSFR Yugoslavia in the 1970s and 1980s. He exerted considerable influence on the politics of the communist party. He was president of the Federal Constitutional Commission of Yugoslavia, which he held for nearly 20 years. His political ascendance began with the economic revitalisation of theBosanska Krajina region, which was impoverished in the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina. Pozderac provided political backing toAgrokomerc, a small local food manufacturer that would later become one of the largest food manufacturing corporations in the former Yugoslavia. Agrokomerc proved to be the key to the economic prosperity of the region.[citation needed]
While his primary goal was economic reform of then impoverished SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he relatively successfully implemented, Pozderac also played an important role in confrontingnationalists from Serbia through a series of controversial and risky political moves. The reason he is today considered one of the most important Bosnian politicians is his significant role in constitutional amendments in the 1970s, which recognisedBosnian Muslims as one of the constituent ethnic groups of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina and SFR Yugoslavia. Although his political orientation was left of centre, and while he continually confronted nationalist politics of ethnic groups in former Yugoslavia, Pozderac inevitably contributed to the establishment of the process that led to the emergence of the modern Bosniak nation.[citation needed]
A series of political attacks were reportedly staged against Pozderac by the Serbian lobby in Bosnia, who tried to discredit and remove him from the political scene. One attempt was made byVojislav Šešelj in the early 1980s, who learned that one of the students of Pozderac at theUniversity of Sarajevo plagiarized portions of his dissertation, but was not punished for by Pozderac. Because the studentBrano Miljuš was a high-ranking individual within the Communist party, controversy ensued but Šešelj's efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.[2]
The most controversial process, however, was the so-called "Sarajevo process" in 1983. The Sarajevo process centred on convictingAlija Izetbegović for having written theIslamic Declaration. Pozderac reaffirmed his political opposition to Serbian nationalism and in particular to the politics ofSlobodan Milošević, who was allegedly seeking to revert the constitutional amendments of the 1970s that awarded theMuslims the status of a constituent ethnicity.
The "Sarajevo process" backfired as the Serbian lobby insisted that Bosnia was a "darkvilayet" where all those who oppose the government will be prosecuted and where Bosnian Muslim communists were prosecutingMuslim believers. Others interpreted the "Sarajevo process" as Pozderac's way of removing political amateurs who could end up disrupting the process of Bosnianindependence.[3]
Izetbegović would later supersede Pozderac becoming thePresident of the Presidency of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1990.[4]
Attacks on Pozderac culminated with the "Agrokomerc Affair" that began in 1987. In the 1980sAgrokomerc, one of the leading food manufacturers, was engulfed in questionable banking deals where the corporation issued numerous high interestpromissory notes without the proper financial equity. Such practices were reportedly common within the Yugoslav system. The difference with Agrokomerc was that the director of the corporation,Fikret Abdić, lost the sense of scale as the corporation issued in excess of $500 million in "worthless" promissory notes.
The problem became more acute as the press reported on it as the biggest economic affair in former Yugoslavia triggering the 250%inflation rate in Yugoslavia. Pozderac, who contributed to the initial growth of Agrokomerc, was indicted of being aware of the financial dealings of the company. However such accusations were never proven.
The political blow to Pozderac came from Abdić's statement that he was in possession of audio tapes with conversations that would prove Pozderac's involvement in the scandal. While tapes were never actually presented, the political pressure on Pozderac culminated in September 1987, at which point he resigned frompolitics.[5]
Abdić would later join Alija Izetbegović in 1990 to form theParty of Democratic Action (SDA) and win the popular vote for thePresidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the1990 Bosnian general election.
Historical significance of Pozderac for thehistory of Bosnia and Herzegovina is today still debated among historians. He is criticized for his ideological following of thecommunist doctrines and for setting processes that did not honor certain liberties viewed in thewestern world as the coredemocratic principles, such as thefreedom of speech. He was also criticized for being a cog ofnepotism and although he did not subscribe to that tactic himself he certainly took advantage of it. As a result, Pozderac was criticized for contributing to the continued presence of Pozderac family on the political scene inBosnia and Herzegovina.
One however needs to view these issues from the context within which Pozderac operated. Being part of the communist system, Pozderac saw political ascendance possible only within the system. If one adds to this, thepatriarchic nature of theBalkans, his strong leadership was proven to be the only potent power that could make the difference inSR Bosnia and Herzegovina of thecommunist era. He was the follower of the conviction that political, legal, philosophical, religious, literary, artistic and other progress is based on the economic progress. Pozderac is credited for implementing processes that led theeconomic revitalization of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which contributed to strengthening the cultural independence and identity Bosnia withinYugoslavia.
Pozderac cannot be viewed as a movement leader but as a patient and principledpolitician who saw the opportunity for change by working within the system.
His legacy certainly can be credited with contributions to the constitutional recognition ofMuslims (historically revived asBosniaks in 1993) as a constituent people within Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with the already recognisedCroats andSerbs, and his persistent position in protecting those rights. He has also continually worked on protection of the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina within Yugoslavia and while he did begin some processes for which he would be criticized, many consider that without his involvement in the Yugoslav politics at the time, Bosnia may have not had the political nor other potency to pursue toindependence in the 1990s.[6]
Members of the Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1984-1989) | |
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| Membersex officio as President of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia |
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| Presidents of the People's Assembly of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina(1945–1974) |
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| Presidents of the Presidency of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina(1974–1992) |
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| President of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina(1992–1996) |
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| Chairmen of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina(since 1996) | |
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